Originally Posted by nugent
Update from court yesterday bbc news
The pilot of a plane that crashed into the English Channel, killing footballer Emiliano Sala, was ordered not to fly the aircraft, a court has heard.
Fay Keely said she asked that David Ibbotson not fly her plane after being told of previous infringements.
David Henderson, 67, was the plane's operator and was responsible for choosing appropriate pilots.
Ms Keely said she had bought the Piper Malibu aircraft in 2015 through her family's trust, Cool Flourish Ltd, of which she is secretary and director.
She said that she had told Mr Henderson in 2018 that Mr Ibbotson should not fly the aircraft again after she was notified by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of two infringements that had happened while he was in the air.
She later found out that Henderson had hired Mr Ibbotson again, this time to pilot a flight carrying her sister a month later, in August 2018.
She said: "Later on in the year, in August, he tried to contact me while I was on holiday. He was due to fly my sister on a trip and was going to be piloting himself.
"I found out after the event that he was unavailable and had asked David Ibbotson to fly instead of him."
"He allowed that to happen without my permission," she added.
Asked by defence counsel Stephen Spence QC if she had warned Henderson not to hire Mr Ibbotson again, she said: "No. As far as I was concerned I had made my feelings clear that he shouldn't be flying the aircraft."
In an text message exchange from August 2018, that was read to the jury, Mr Henderson had a conversation with someone who had flown with Mr Ibbotson.
It said: "The Ibbotson experience was interesting! He was all over the place. Had to help him out coming into White Waltham [airfield]."
Mr Henderson replied: "His handling OK? Takes a lot to try and knock these new guys into shape."
"He's just not very quick and not thinking ahead," was the reply.
In another text message, found on Mr Henderson's phone from July 2018, Mr Ibbotson explained he had "messed up a couple of times" during a flight.
Jurors also heard that, hours after the night-time crash, Mr Henderson had messaged aircraft engineer David Smith telling him to "keep very quiet", adding "need to be very careful. Opens up a whole can of worms".
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